Faithful Pebble
Part Twenty
The man smiled. It was enough. "What's your name?" he asked.
He turned then began to climb down the side of the well propelling slowly inch by inch, foot by foot along moss slick flagstone, dirty crusted roots and velvet green vines, the light dissipating with each movement.
The girl stuttered. "J-Jill," she said.
The name was thrown hastily, almost too hastily. The man paused looking down at her, a smirk smugly forming. Another lie my dear? Well then. His voice huffed with his exertion, "Then, you shall call me Jack."
"Jack?" she asked skeptically. "Why would I call you that? Is that really your—"
"One lie deserves another," the man scolded. He dropped a foot lower, his smirk widening, his lips puckering as he softly chanted. "Jack and Jill went up a hill to fetch a pail of—"
"Please. I wasn't—"
"Jill fell down and broke her crown—"
"Please."
"And Jack—"
"It's Iris," she grumbled. If anything, her tone quickly and surely gave her away. The wanderer dropped another foot accidentally kicking a stone slab loose. It fell. She was annoyed. "My name is Iris, Iris Meridian—"
- Calla